A way to understand forgiveness

On Wednesday nights, I work with a youth group at a church plant about ten minutes away from my college campus. Last night we were discussing forgiveness and how that looks in society. You all know as well as I do that there are many things that are sooo much easier to forgive people, and ourselves, for than others. Personally, if somebody tells me a white lie to protect my feelings, rather than tell me that the shirt I'm wearing is better suited as a garbage bag instead, then I will be able to "forgive" that person pretty easily, even when somebody else says "Eww, why are you wearing your great-grandma's gardening shirt?" later on. This is extremely different than if somebody murdered a family member... I don't know about you, but there are some things on this earth that are extremely difficult for me to forgive. I have a difficult time forgiving people who haze others, particularly "misfits" to society. When I think of men at truckstops and strip clubs that sell women's bodies like a rental DVD, my blood boils. How about the people of the Westboro Baptist Church, that torment the grieving families at a soldier's funeral and make people who struggle with homosexuality feel like skum of the earth?  Those people make me go on angry tangents. Then there are people who have raped or molested a child... I believe almost everybody can agree that that is about as heinous as it gets.

Some of the girls in our group are at the point of really getting the grasp of God's all encompassing forgiveness and that Jesus died on the Cross to take care of all of our sins, not just white lies or stealing candy bars. A few were bringing up the really tough stuff too, like how they do not see how God can do it. How does such a pure and holy God simply forgive and forget this kind of madness and evil? Because he LOVES those people and does just as much as He loves St. John, Mother Theresa, and every rosy-cheeked baby on the planet! He loves all of us equally and would have died for any of us if we were the only person on the Earth...

How do we picture this completely selfless, unconditional love? An interesting way to look at it is to think of any person you find yourself judging or growing bitter towards and think, "What if that was my child?" I don't have children but I sometimes think of my parents or my sister or a baby cousin. Seriously think of your child, or given loved one, as committing the action you get ticked off about. Changes the context doesn't it? This is a new approach I seriously want to implement. When I see a show about some middle school brat who victimizes one of her best friends, I think, "What if that was my child, or younger sister even, who was feeling so insecure and socially focused that she was resorting to cruel things to make herself feel better? Of course I'd still be upset and never condone the behavior, but I would, with love, try to help her change that action, rather than ridding her off. That's easy enough right? How about homophobic protesters? I get very passionate about that as I know gay people who have struggled greatly, only to feel alienated, especially by Christians. It is so easy for me to side with them personally, but others it isn't. Imagine if that was your child, not some obnoxious, super-open-inyoface type who is an adult and can handle himself. Suddenly you see that internal battle and the resulting depressed child who feels like a freak... And how about the protesters? Think, what if my child believed he or she was doing everything they believed to glorify God and in some odd thinking they have well-meaning motives? I'm not sure, and that's a huge pill for me to swallow, but I am already feeling shame for the awful things I have said about the protesters as I type this.
Then if you look at major things that nearly universally are so evil and angering to see. How can anybody easily imagine their own child raping a young girl or beating up an infant? I apologize if I am upsetting you; I am feeling ill just typing that and I completely understand. But even if they commit terrible things, would you not always hope that they would come around, and that they would have a change of heart and want to live a righteous life that would honor you and show you love as a parent?

God wants this for all of his children. He did not only create our bodies biologically, but he developed every little trait, form our personalities to our fears and dreams, to what kinds of foods we like and what makes us smile and laugh and cry and just sit around.... He knows every fiber of our being. How can He not love his children?? While we are limited in our humanity by what we can and can't forgive, God has to deal with the intense pain constantly of having children that do abominable things. And to Him, there is no compromise. A white lie is jsut as painful to Him as what is most painful to us. Since we also sin, we don't have to completely collide with our beloved child when they do. God does by default, because we all do things that directly repel His love and who He is. The pain is so much worse in that case! Yet, He still will forgive us at the drop of a hat (pride, really), waaayyy quicker than our grudges will dissolve. Next time forgiveness is difficult, think, "what if that were my child?" and then remember the intensity of how God feels; the same times 100000000000000 to the 100000000000000000000000th power times a whole bunch more!